By Stephen Henderson

The Patrick County High School Cougars won their season-opener last Tuesday with a win over Gretna High School. The score was 50-45. Friday, they lost to host team North Stokes 90-61.

In Tuesday’s game at Gretna, the Hawks took the lead 14-8 at the end of the first quarter, but the Cougar offense came alive in the second period to outscore the Hawks 15-6.

The third period saw the Cougars take advantage of the free throw line, adding seven points to their score to tie the game 36-36 at the end of the third period. Eight more free throws contributed to PC’s 17 points in the final quarter to take the win, 50-45.

Hunter Lawless led scorers with 13 points. Darius Hagwood added 11 and Josh Cockram scored 10 points. Brandon Hubbard scored nine.

The Cougars shot 74% from the free throw line Tuesday night.

The Cougars played the game without their two starting point guards. “Both were out for the game, and the next in line fouled out early in the game against Gretna,” Coach Andrew Terry explained. “Hunter Lawless and Brandon Hubbard pretty much ran the game for us—they did a pretty good job,” Terry said.

“We made a lot of first-game mistakes, but we managed to pull out the win in the end,” he said

“I was proud of this first win. Our energy and intensity were great all game; defensively, we played amazingly, holding them to 45 points,” he said.

“The way we had to play that game changed up a little bit the way we want to play this year, but I was proud of the way it turned out,” he said.

Friday, the Cougars traveled to North Stokes and lost 61-90.

The Cougars and the Vikings played fairly even ball in the first period, with the Vikings taking a slim lead 16-13. However, the second period saw the Vikings take a domineering offensive push where three-point baskets made the difference in the score. North Stokes landed six three-point baskets; however, they led the Cougars to the foul line for 10 shots. The Cougars made good on eight of them. The score at the half was 47-31.

The Vikings continued their three-point run in the third period, adding three more to the team’s total of 15 on the night.

Patrick County attempted to catch up with the Viking in the second half, but the three-pointers overwhelmed the Cougars’ two-point shots.

Frankie LaComa and Hunter Lawless each scored 12 points for the Cougars. DeAndre Reynolds added 10.

The Cougars were 17 of 27 from the foul line.

“We scouted the Vikings and knew that they could shoot,” said Coach Andrew Terry. “They got hot in the second quarter, and when we left the shooters open, they made good on their threes,” he said. “Once one guy hit one, it started raining for them, getting six in the second quarter,” he added.

“We scored evenly with them for a while, but we were trading twos for threes, giving them the lead,” Terry said.

“We had a chance in the third quarter to bring it back, down by 12, but we had a six-or seven-possession stretch where we just came up empty—missed layups and turnovers,” Terry said.

“This was some early-season stuff where you’d expect your veteran players would be better at handling. We were in foul trouble all night which put a strain on us having to go to the bench early,” he added.

“This is something they can learn from—we got a lot of experience in these first two games for the guys who didn’t play a lot last year. It will pay dividends later on in the season,” Terry said.

The Cougars hosted Floyd Monday night. Wednesday (today), they travel to Floyd, and all Cougar basketball teams host North Stokes Friday night with the boys’ varsity game starting at 8:30 p.m.